25 Spectacular Light Painting Images

Light Painting in its many forms has been a growing trend on Flickr and other photo sharing sites in the last couple of years.

These images are attention grabbing and full of amazing color, movement and detail. In this post we share 25 examples to inspire you.

Image by brentbat

These great images come from a variety of talented photographers including Brent Pearson (his image is above) who has written a great resource touching on the topic – Night Photography and Light Painting (one of the few resources we highly recommend).

Long exposure photography always a fun thing to do especially with like minded cool person. How wonderful it can be if you print it on Canvas? Consider good source for printing any photo on canvas at http://www.canvaschamp.com

Some Older Comments

I'm speechless, this is more then amazing! Light can make anything look extraordinary. I did frame this kind of art before, trough Photo sites or even at foto tavla

LED EddieSeptember 14, 2013 02:24 am

Darren,

Seems to be some old examples of LP. Feel free to hook in any of mine if you updating.

Yours in light.

LED Eddie

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lededdie/

Marcela Cava BalsaApril 13, 2013 06:44 am

Great images!

Maybe do you like my works:

Check Marcela Cava Balsa in wordpress:

Pollockoflight.wordpress.com

https://pollockoflight.wordpress.com/category/cuadros-de-luz-3/

Regards,

MCV

MauriceMarch 8, 2013 09:49 pm

Mater of light painting: www.lightart-photography

mr.durianSeptember 17, 2012 10:19 pm

I am not fluent in foreign languages, I was born on October 5 my name is durian is thai youtube-Durianthai1980twitter-Mr.DurianFacebook-Durian Nakhon Sawan//{The idea Show in something new I take To learn Not use less How do you feel At I did not dare is expressed

RamzkieAugust 19, 2012 10:57 pm

Nice Light Paintings. Hope i can create mine too... Thanks a lot.

Roy BalcombApril 28, 2012 01:55 am

I am going to try some experiments with this over the weekend. I am attending classes at the Museum of London ("London through a Lens" and our project this week is really helped by this illustrated article and all the photos. Thank you all

XenEffectMarch 3, 2012 08:01 am

@ henry - you don't need led lights only .. you can use flash lights or even your celphone.. however LED lights do have a feel that can't be replicated with a flash light. ..

HenryFebruary 4, 2012 02:08 am

can i draw these with any lights, i know it's supposed to be with a specific camera but i really have to use LED drawing pens specifically?

LED lightJanuary 5, 2012 07:20 am

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BenDecember 19, 2011 05:14 pm

Wow some of those are really good and or creative! I've done a couple of these, but I didnt think my shots out well enough to have effects like this. But I did make a sweet little Stop motion video using light painting..

http://www.youtu.be/9GBCbiF1RvI?hd=1

I plan on making many more so feel free to subscribe!

Rob BamfordNovember 21, 2011 09:20 am

Great thread, love the stick figures. Definitely going to try something like this.

JaredNovember 20, 2011 12:13 pm

This is a great form of art. I enjoy the high contrast of the dark background with the lights...

Ahmed S2rJune 26, 2011 07:38 pm

Theese ideas are GOOD (Y)

Well i've got my first try on light painting and i wanted your opinion

I've done a few of these and featured them on my blog (here:http://sjctphotography.blogspot.com/2011/04/slowwwww-shutter-speed-in-dark-pt-2.html and here: http://sjctphotography.blogspot.com/2011/04/slowwwww-shutter-speed-in-dark-pt-1.html). Nothing like the ones above though. Holy crap! Those are awesome!

GabeMay 25, 2011 07:08 am

This is just done using a really long exposure / slow shutter speed?

andrewApril 28, 2011 10:59 pm

Check out this great new lightpainting animated music video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZohmoG981s

LightPaintingPhotographyMarch 3, 2011 03:47 am

Sorry guys the FACEBOOK link for LightPaintingPhotography.com is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Light-Painting-Photography/118536284878966

shishirJanuary 23, 2011 06:02 am

Tried this "Ghosts by the poolside" theme for light painting...hope you like it

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sathellite/5376800081/

Dallas Wedding Photographer Powell PicturesJanuary 10, 2011 12:56 am

I'm so inspired! Thank you!. I especially like the stick figure/see-saw!

Manny GiesteiraNovember 26, 2010 01:31 am

Probably a late post but I have to hand in an assignment at the club and these images were really so inspiring and stunning. Thank you!

BüyüSeptember 3, 2010 08:06 pm

Dug to the end, an interesting article that is, thank you : ) Subscribed to your RSS feed.

What kind of light did you guys used in this photos? I want to make one also.( ^_^) Spectacular photos indeed!!!

nitinDecember 11, 2009 03:47 am

dude occem work budy thanx 4 sharring

joey m. fradejasDecember 8, 2009 03:47 pm

nice light painting images....by just looking at the images, you already think of how the photographers made the images....am sure different photographers could do it in a different way than the others...nice

maheenDecember 8, 2009 02:01 am

amazing work!!!! thanx for sharing =)

PigonDecember 5, 2009 11:26 pm

Thanks Darren for sharing this great 25 inspirational images with us!

Jenn @CanvasPopDecember 5, 2009 04:05 am

The things that you are able to do with light is amazing. Thanks for such a great collection.If you are ever interested in having your photos printed on canvas check out CanvasPop at www.canvaspop.com.

Salvacion (Saanva in the forum)December 4, 2009 12:33 pm

Wow! These are really amazing!!! I have to learn to do this. Any tutorial?

BlindVisionDecember 4, 2009 10:14 am

Love working with light havent done enought with it but with these winter night i have plenty more time to create more. Check some of mine that i have done..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blindedvision/4012538738/
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blindedvision/4009934804/

ernieDecember 4, 2009 10:00 am

wow! amazing lighting shoots! tnx darwen for sharing

GlenDecember 4, 2009 09:17 am

Everyone should give this ago.
It is alot of fun. me and acouple of mates went out to take photos of car trails one evening after a few beers. we ended up at the park with acouple or torch's and spent the whole night drinking beer and coming up with crazy ideas for photos.
I can assure you it is fun, even though passers by might think you are a little strange doing cartwheels with torches taped to your hands and feet at 3am. its well woth it i assure you.
Ahh good times

RichardDecember 4, 2009 08:19 am

The second image depicting violence is inappropriate, I think there is too much violence in the world without having to make it look attractive. Very poor selection.

Jay McIntyreDecember 4, 2009 08:07 am

I've just begun to try my hand at light painting here's a link to a few on my blog http://bit.ly/4r2AIb

here's my contribution, the cam was a simple point and shoot but the final result became cool. :D

Tom PatonDecember 2, 2009 09:20 pm

Thanks for featuring my photo (sparkler angel wings). I'm glad you all liked it and I've added a couple of notes on how it was done to the description.

JamesDecember 2, 2009 08:38 pm

Very Beautiful & excellent Photos.
Thanks for sharing with us.

BrentbatDecember 2, 2009 07:51 pm

Hey thanks Darren for including a couple of my images in this list.

For those that want to see how I do my lightpainting, head over to my blog, I have quite a few free video tutorials which give you a sense of both the capture and post production.

Cheers
Brent

Carol LundeenDecember 2, 2009 12:51 pm

Thanks for the inspiration, makes me want to dig out any old flashlight and have some fun.

JakeDecember 2, 2009 11:36 am

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3057/3057180491_7e3b23dfeb_b.jpg

JakeDecember 2, 2009 11:35 am

Duane SchoonDecember 2, 2009 10:39 am

Thanks for using one of my pictures, the fire spider, You can find more of my pics and info on how I took them at
www.flickr.com/photos/duaneschoon

MatthiasDecember 2, 2009 08:02 am

I also did a lightpainting with a friend ;)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthiashombauer/3689125807/

Adrienne BrandDecember 2, 2009 04:43 am

Very cool! I'm going to run a workshop with my photo group so everyone can learn how to Light Paint. Thanks for the images! ~ Adrienne Brand, Founder & Organizer, Long Island Photography Meetup

Alan NielsenDecember 2, 2009 04:09 am

I love these lighting photos. What a great new art.

sajibDecember 2, 2009 03:19 am

really liked the guitar ( the first one ) ... fabulous post !

Robbie VeldwijkDecember 2, 2009 02:40 am

This is really awesome! Great colors and nice paintings!

Damien FrancoDecember 2, 2009 02:28 am

Great collection of images. I used to use this technique when shooting weddings and sparklers were being used to usher out the couple after the ceremony. It was always a hit with the couple.

ErikaJeanDecember 2, 2009 12:59 am

I LOVE light painting. here are some I've done. http://www.erikajean.com/search?q=light+writing

Stock PhotosDecember 1, 2009 11:31 pm

I really like the guitar! The lights make the instrument "sing".

ThomasDecember 1, 2009 10:20 pm

please check that gallery, he's a french who is doing light painting for 30 years with a large format camera :
http://www.michel-semeniako.com/gal_1.html

he's work is just amazing, no digital, no photoshop just fiilm sheets and light.

ToryDecember 1, 2009 10:17 pm

omg! that is just so cool! how do u do it?

Alex Suffolk PhotographerDecember 1, 2009 09:42 pm

some excellent images there - I remember when we did our painting with light module at photoschool, though we didn't produce anything like this.

I especially like the anime lightning bolt and the umbrella one.

Aimee GreeblemonkeyDecember 1, 2009 01:30 pm

So so so inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

Rolling StoneDecember 1, 2009 01:29 pm

These are all great! But I really love the precise light lines the best. Truly amazing!

Radityo PradiptoDecember 1, 2009 11:40 am

Lovely executed shots! My favourites are the MacBook Pro shot and the chair ones...
I agree that we should invite the photographers and share their technique here ^^

NickDecember 1, 2009 09:07 am

Really enjoyed looking through these images. Some great ideas here. Really like the stick figure sat in the swinging bench. Bet that took a few attempts. Thought I'd have a quick go at my own tonight. Here's an attempt of an outline using my girlfriend as the model, I drew round her using an LED torch.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nick92/4147895517/

Let me know what you think. Hoping to attempt a few more complex light paintings in the future.

Julian CashDecember 1, 2009 08:21 am

Poke at http://EdibleLight.com for lots of light painting portraits that I've taken. Or look at my pro site: http://www.juliancash.com/edible.html

Thanks for the great gallery of glowing images Darren!
-julian

artwork rebelDecember 1, 2009 07:20 am

Thank you for featuring my photo of Goku! It always comes back to this my photo, one of my first to practice with long exposure photography! By all means message me on flickr if you want help or advice more than happy t share!

Many thanks!

Damien LovegroveDecember 1, 2009 06:27 am

I love these, thanks for sharing. I love the chair by Pedro Moura Pinheiro and Bur?Blu's moonlit work. Made my day.

Parag PundlikDecember 1, 2009 05:46 am

I agree with Larry and afaris...
I have tried doing this so many times, but the results are ridiculous...

AndrewDecember 1, 2009 05:35 am

I did a couple of posts on light painting in my blog. It's so much fun, super addicting. And when you pull off the shot, it's a definite great feeling of reward.

http://naturesmugshots.blogspot.com

DanfernoDecember 1, 2009 05:06 am

Image by mikeleary83 is by far my favourite.

-SDecember 1, 2009 04:04 am

@afaris: I have 3 photos featured above (thanks Darren), and I wrote a small blurb about how it was done in the corresponding photoset page. Time permitting, I'll write something longer, these are just pointers.

sioux city used carsDecember 1, 2009 03:16 am

Those are some ingenious ideas. I like the umbrella one the best.

afarisDecember 1, 2009 01:42 am

wow!amazing shots!i second larry,am eager to learn how those shots were made

ChristophDecember 1, 2009 01:39 am

Amazing. There are also videos made with this technique, I once saw a video by a Japanese group but can't remember the name.

FernandoDecember 1, 2009 01:36 am

Excelent shots..
I have had my hand at a few lightpainting shots, and have always enjoy making them.

http://fmatiasphotography.blogspot.com/search/label/Lightpainting

I find that I have to try quite a few times untill I get exactly what I am looking for. Very much trial and error!
Enjoy!

Ruben TavaresDecember 1, 2009 01:16 am

Great photos :D

Larry EissDecember 1, 2009 01:07 am

This is excellent! How about having some of the photographers tell us how they did it? I am ready to learn.